The murder of Terri Schiavo

By the time you read this, Terri Schiavo will be dead. At the time I’m writing this, even most of us who wanted her to live will be relieved that her pain and suffering will be over.

The other good thing about her final release will be that we will no longer have to listen to the so-called experts insist that starvation and dehydration not only aren’t painful in the extreme, but actually bring on a state of bliss, almost rapture. These are the same people, I’m willing to wager, who’d throw a hissy fit if you deprived them of a single meal – let alone a few dozen!

All along, I have been mystified by a couple of things. The first of these is why the courts have been so anxious to oblige Michael Schiavo, a man who, rather than get a civil divorce or a Catholic annulment from Terri, has opted to shack up with another woman and father two children out of wedlock.

The other matter I found it hard to fathom was the zeal exhibited by Michael’s partisans in their campaign to have Terri Schiavo killed. I understood the passion of those on my side of the issue. We saw this woman being slowly starved to death, while the four people who loved her the most and wished to care for her had to stand by helplessly, stymied by a single Florida judge and a vile legal system that refused to overrule the petty tyrant.

Michael Schiavo’s actions and statements have been so bizarre that they have quite naturally led many people to question his motives. But what about the millions of people who have lined up behind him? What did they have to gain? Those were some of the very people who hold candlelight vigils when Florida gives serial killers painless lethal injections, and who weep copious tears when mountain lions are shot, and who worry about the quality of life of insects on the endangered list.

Why were so many people who had never even heard of Marbury v. Madison suddenly carrying on about the sanctity of states’ rights as if they were constitutional Talmudists? This same crowd had no objection with the federal government’s getting involved with abortion when the Roe v. Wade decision went their way, although, abortion, however you may feel about it, is clearly a states’ right issue. And I know they certainly didn’t mind it when the feds subjected the cops involved in the Rodney King incident to double jeopardy after the Simi Valley jury acquitted all four defendants.

The answer to these mysteries, I’m now convinced, is that those who most vociferously objected to Terri Schiavo’s murder were those on the religious right. For those on the left, that was reason enough to sentence the woman to a slow, torturous death.

Because leftists have no moral or religious convictions, but merely a political agenda, there is no consistency to their positions. For example, they never once brought up the ultimate authority of the United Nations when President Clinton sent American troops into Somalia and Kosovo, but suddenly carried on as if they were all getting their cut of the oil-for-food payoffs once President Bush was calling the shots.

Clinton announced that Social Security was in big trouble and that something drastic needed to be done, and all the Democrats on Capitol Hill chimed in like a Greek chorus. But, as we all know, they did nothing. Now, when Bush says that Social Security is in big trouble and that something drastic needs to be done, the same folks insist that Social Security is as sound as a bell. Couldn’t be healthier!

If it had been Clinton who had invaded Iraq, the liberals, led by George Soros, would have passed the hat and erected a statue in his honor on the site where Saddam Hussein’s statue was toppled.

The reason those on the left hate Bush even more than they did Nixon isn’t because he’s a cowboy or because the French don’t care for him, but because he has spoken so sincerely about his faith. The left understands it when Democratic presidential candidates show up at every black Baptist church in America. That’s OK. That’s just good, old-fashioned, politics. They only find church attendance reprehensible when, God forbid, it’s for religious reasons.

Those on the left have no moral center. They merely have a knee-jerk opposition to everything that the religiously devout, so long as they’re not Muslims or voodooists, hold dear.

If, tomorrow, conservative Christians came out in favor of absolute gun control, teenage abortions without parental consent, gay marriages, and drivers licenses for illegal aliens, liberals would either have to automatically switch sides, or, more likely, simply retire to a quiet room while their heads exploded.